


Outer Space Oddity

by hikarufly



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-11
Updated: 2016-01-11
Packaged: 2018-05-13 05:55:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5697484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hikarufly/pseuds/hikarufly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I have been devastated by today's news about David Bowie's death, so I conjured up this little story, I hope you won't find upsetting for any reason. I just wanted to make something nice out of a very sad thing.</p>
<p>English is not my first language, so there you go. M is for subtext.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Outer Space Oddity

Clara woke up in her room in the TARDIS. It took her a few moments to realise where she was and why. She curled in her big blanket and focused on the dream she just had: it was like trying to pick up loose ends of a kite's bridle while that's reaching away from you. Maybe there was her, and the Doctor, and... where were they? What time, what space?

She sighed a frustrated whisper and stood up, while the room warmed according to her body temperature. The TARDIS may have been a machine, and a jealous sort of girl, but not unkind. Clara stood up, still sleepy, and put her night-gown over her nightie. Her slippers were fluffy and warm so she put them on too and got out of the room, in complete and utter silence. She roamed down the corridors of the time machine, looking for a kitchen, if there was one, hoping to put the kettle on and drink some very, very hot tea. She had a feeling that her dream was very melancholic, sad but beautiful, and had left her with an uncomfortable yet warm sensation.

She walked on, finding herself in the control room.

«Maybe behind one of these round things there's a kettle...» she said, unconvincing even to herself.

She looked around, stranded. Why the Doctor was silent, or best, why wasn't he replying to her? He always had to outsmart anyone who was talking, especially about his ship. She could almost hear “They're not for that, I don't know what the round things are for, but not boiling water!” in his Scottish voice. And yet, when she reached the controls themselves, nothing. She saw a little kettle on the mezzanine, but his absence became too worrying for her to take her time.

She searched for him in and around the control room, and then she got, without a second thought, to the doors and opened them. Where did the TARDIS landed?

She got outside, and her breath came out and ran away in small quick clouds of steam. It was cold, very cold, and it looked like some industrial place in some eastern European country. She was even more worried and stranded. He hated Sundays, he always wanted to find the best and most spectacular places... what was he doing in an industrial town?

True, marvels come out of those, too, but... she strolled around, her arms crossed on her chest to try and keep her warm, looking for the Doctor. How dare he left her behind? But, well, she was more worried about him than crossed. She could still not make out the place, at least until she saw a street-sign, translated in her head by the TARDIS.

«Berlin?» she whispered, not recognising the place she visited on holiday a few years back. She walked on, avoiding puddles and keeping a low profile, as she saw two officers with a military sort of demeanour and green uniforms. She had seen them in some old photographs on history books: _Volkspolizei_ , East German police.

She made out the year by looking at a small newspaper poster: 1976. As it was not weird enough, she turned a corner and saw it: the Brandenburg Gate. What was the Doctor doing in the middle of the Cold War itself? He hated weapons and fighting but he deplored barren debate as well. She always thought he believed this “war” as the perfect example of how stupid the human race was, augmenting fear for the sake of nothing at all. Yet, again, that's in the worst conditions that beauty can thrive even more splendidly. There were a couple of people sat on the steps of the gate. She got closer and saw the Doctor, with his electric guitar, almost laying down in a decadent pose just mirroring the other person with him: David Bowie. A young, skinny, reddish-haired David Bowie, smiling with irony and malice to that much older man beside him.

«Clara?»

The Doctor looked at her, and in hearing his voice she smiled automatically, relieved. Then she remembered how frightened and stranded she had been because of him so she got closer to go and punch him, almost forgetting about David Bowie. She had never been a fan, or best a proper fan, yet a rock legend is still a rock legend. When she passed the first few steps up, she felt like entering a big soap bubble without puncturing it.

«It's a protecting field, Clara, don't worry. I just don't want those so-called “policemen” to bother us» the Doctor explained. David laughed.

«This guy says he's from outer space, like, for real, and then a British girl in a nightie comes out of East Berlin's alleys. I might be fooled for real, this time.» said the thin man, laughing. His eyes...

«I think I dreamt of you.» said Clara. David smiled again.

«Many do. I'm sure it was a pleasant dream.» he replied, with a very naughty grin. The Doctor frowned at him and then looked at her.

«Did you see the date on the console?» the Doctor asked her. She shook her head.

«No previews, that's best...» he murmured.

«It was not a pleasant dream, anyway... I mean, I don't remember it clearly.» said Clara, sitting between them. «But it felt like something really melancholic.»

The Doctor said nothing but David became very silent and serious. The Time Lord looked at the man who seemed even more alien than himself.

«Don't worry, your time is not up.» said the Doctor, and the man looked up again.

«How would you know?»

His voice had a desperate sound to it, like a small phantom inside him was trying to reach out and hung to those words of hope.

«Told you, I'm a Time Lord. I know about this stuff.» he explained, with a little smile.

David Bowie mirrored him, slightly shaking his head.

«You two stop flirting, please. It's too weird.» Clara said. «And what are you doing this side of the wall? I thought you came to Berlin west by 1976...»

David raised an eyebrow, and stood a little up, sitting less decadently down.

«Are you an alien too?» he asked.

«Oh no, I'm from Blackpool.» she simply replied. «But I travelled in space, and... I am not born yet.»

«And when will you be born?» David asked again.

«In 1986. November the 23rd.» she replied, shivering. It was really cold. The Doctor took his coat off and put it on her shoulders, like it was nothing, like it was something he always did. Clara felt something warm surrounding her heart and smiled at the Doctor, curling up in that coat. Their new friend seemed amused and sad at the same time.

«I don't know why I'm here, darling.» said David «I may have drank too much or took something too strong.»

She looked sorry for him, and he was not happy about it.

«My name is Clara, by the way, and I'm not judging you.» she said, noting his look.

«She's a teacher.» the Doctor explained. «Even if she has this surprisingly round face. That's why she knows when people think she's patronising them.»

«Doctor!» she protested.

«Plus, you're here to get better. To stop with the drugs.» said the Doctor.

«You know it because you're from the future?» David asked.

«In a way, yes.» he replied.

Clara looked at the skinny man with them. The younger one, it was.

«You know, we've been here for hours, and still I can't figure out if you're really an alien or not.» said the rockstar. Clara smiled, and thought that maybe this was why the Doctor did not land during one of his concerts.

«Do you really want to figure that out?» asked the Doctor, with the naughty smile the other man had before.

«Can I see your spaceship?» asked the musician. Clara stood up and offered him her hand, and he took it.

They walked to the TARDIS and, for a moment, the Doctor stood in front of it without saying or doing anything. David was watching it, and had made no remark about the Police box look of the exterior.

«So, where can we take you, dude?» asked the Doctor, looking at his box. Clara was watching them both, as she figured out there was something between them she couldn't grasp.

«Nowhere, Doctor. I've seen the Lost Moon of Poosh, the Medusa Cascade, the woods of Cheem and the snow storms of Ood sphere.» said the man, and Clara looked even more puzzled.

«Yes, I am a man, Clara, but I fell to Earth. And there are other things I need to do before getting back out there, and my ship is in repair.» he added «But thanks for the invitation. I may take it next time.»

The Doctor smiled, broadly. Clara knew he needed a moment with that man alone, so she stood on her tiptoes and kissed David's cheek, before getting inside the TARDIS.

«There's so many splendid oddities here. I can't go now, it's too early. If I see space again... I won't come back here.» explained the man. The Doctor looked in his eyes, and put a hand on his shoulder.

«I know the feeling. That's why I keep coming back to Earth.» the Time Lord replied.

«Maybe you didn't quite understand what I meant...»

«Oh no, I did. Believe me. I've heard your song, Major Tom.» the Doctor let him go and offered him his right hand to shake «You still have things to do. Space can wait.»

David shook his hand.

«Can I borrow your style? I like it.»

The Doctor nodded and made a small bow, like an old dandy. The man in front of him laughed.

«We'll see each other somewhere again, White Duke. One day» said the Time Lord.

«Don't stay out of trouble, and be amazing.» replied the Duke, and the Doctor watched him walk away.

When he went back inside the TARDIS, Clara was still in her nightie but she had put on the kettle.

«I read somewhere that David Bowie had a sort of “accident” with a tea cup so he refused to drink it since.» she said. The Doctor got to her on the mezzanine.

«Did you dream about him?» he asked, smiling as he noted she still had his coat on.

«I believe so... now I remember: a cold wintry day, and the news telling he was dead. But he was not that old...» she replied, while the kettle was boiling. The Doctor took it and filled the teapot.

«He went back to space, this time for good.» said he, but Clara seemed not to believe him.

«You know, I think you would have had fantastic adventures together, just watching the two of you together earlier.»

The Doctor sat on his armchair and started to play his guitar, almost indolently.

«Who said we didn't?» he asked.

And Clara felt something warm wrapping her again, and the naughty smile getting to her lips, this time.

 

 


End file.
